Family Reunion Trip, Day 12

Today we headed to Pipestone National Monument.
On the way we stopped at Split Rock Creek SP. Nice little park on a small lake, mostly wooded, so we figured the bugs would be bad.

Arrived at Pipestone around 1030. Check out the website for the history of this place, but bottom line it is a sacred place to many of the Plains Indians. They actually came here to mine for a certain type of stone they made their pipes from.

Here's the visitor center. We watched a movie about the history here.

Cliffs. The pipestone is under these huge rocks, They had to quarry to get it.

Here's Jacob crawling on the cliffs.

And another one of Jacob at the waterfall.

This stairway led to the top of the cliffs.

This rock when viewed at a certain angle looks just like the head of an Indian.

We saw this monster on the path. Don't get too close it's a snapping turtle. The locals said it was a small one!

Nice stream downstream from the waterfall.

These rocks are known as the three maidens.

A small pond in the park.

Back at camp Jacob discovered my entrenching tool and decided to excavate the sandbox in the campground.

Dinner, smores, and then early to bed. It's been a fun day.